Evil, in a general sense, is defined by what it is not—the opposite or absence of good. Elements that are commonly associated with personal forms of evil involve unbalanced behavior including anger, revenge, hatred, psychological trauma, expediency, selfishness, ignorance, destruction and neglect.

David Hume (/hjuːm/; born David Home; 7 May 1711 NS (26 April 1711 OS) – 25 August 1776) was a Scottish Enlightenment philosopher, historian, economist, librarian and essayist, who is best known today for his highly influential system of philosophical empiricism, skepticism, and naturalism.

The problem of evil refers to the challenge of reconciling belief in an omnipotent, omnibenevolent, and omniscient God, with the existence of evil and suffering in the world.

According to traditional Western theism, God is maximally great (or perfect), and therefore is omnipotent. Omnipotence seems puzzling, even paradoxical, to many philosophers. They wonder, for example, whether God can create a spherical cube, or make a stone so massive that he cannot move it.

Likewise, God cannot make a being greater than himself because he is, by definition, the greatest possible being. God is limited in his actions to his nature. The Bible supports this, they assert, in passages such as Hebrews 6:18, which says it is “impossible for God to lie.”

An omnipotent being would be a being whose power was unlimited. The power of human beings is limited in two distinct ways: we are limited with respect to our freedom of will, and we are limited in our ability to execute what we have willed.

He claimed that if God cannot stop evil then he is not all-powerful (omnipotent). He linked these two points together, claiming that if God is all-powerful and good, then evil would not exist. Finally, human experience is that evil does exist. Therefore Epicurus concluded that God must not exist.

Not necessarily, but it can do. If a set being has omnipotence – power without limitation – then they would simply have to grant themselves omniscience. Similarly, any one being with omniscience would know all ways – if there are any- to become omnipotent.

The term omnipotence refers to the idea that God is all-powerful. There are many stories in the Bible which reveal the power of God. An example of God’s omnipotence is found in Genesis chapter 1 that describes the creation of the world. It states how God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh.

Hume suggests that the self is just a bundle of perceptions, like links in a chain. Hume argues that our concept of the self is a result of our natural habit of attributing unified existence to any collection of associated parts. This belief is natural, but there is no logical support for it.

Terms in this set (10) Which claim did Descartes use to establish the certainty of his own existence? I think, therefore I am.

By transcendental Kant means what is a necessary condition for the possibility of any experience. Luce Irigaray claims that the concept of an “essential” self is liberating and expressive, particularly when applied to women. Hume concludes that the idea of a self is simply a fiction.